The No.6 Dance

They don't make them like this too often anymore. No. 6 Dance is American rock & roll from the heartland with Five Horse Johnson hopping a freight train and riding the rails from rootsy blues to acid rock to '70s guitar-band heaviness. The album takes Led Zeppelin's brand of psychedelic stoner tunes and puts them in a stars-and-stripes T-shirt. "Mississippi King" is a catchy jam that would have suited Skynyrd just fine. "Spillin' Fire" takes the old school harmonica blues and rocks out with them, and "It Ain't Easy" makes for a sweet, Southern, sun-drenched cover. "Gods of Demolition," the title that best befits Five Horse Johnson, showcases Brad Coffin's demon guitar and Eric Oblander's desert rocking, Kyuss-esque vocals. But the best song on the disc has got to be "Shine Around," a groovy, circular, Black Crowes-style jam with a singalong chorus -- a tune worthy of the smokiest middle-American teen bedrooms circa 1973. ~ Charles Spano